Chapter 3

The Relational Model

Transparencies

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Relational Model Terminology
 A relation is a table with columns and rows.
– Only applies to logical structure of the
database, not the physical structure.

 Attribute is a named column of a relation.

 Domain is the set of allowable values for one or

more attributes.

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Relational Model Terminology
 Tuple is a row of a relation.

 Degree is the number of attributes in a relation.

 Cardinality is the number of tuples in a relation.

 Relational Database is a collection of normalized

relations with distinct relation names.

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Alternative Terminology for Relational Model

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Mathematical Definition of Relation
 Consider two sets, D1 & D2, where D1 = {2, 4} and D2
= {1, 3, 5}.
 Cartesian product, D1  D2, is set of all ordered
pairs, where first element is member of D1 and
second element is member of D2.

D1 D2 = {(2, 1), (2, 3), (2, 5), (4, 1), (4, 3), (4, 5)}

 Alternative way is to find all combinations of

elements with first from D1 and second from D2.
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Database Relations
 Relation schema
– Named relation defined by a set of attribute
and domain name pairs.

 Relational database schema

– Set of relation schemas, each with a distinct
name.

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 Relational Keys
Key plays an important role in relational database .It
is used for identifying unique rows from table. It also
establishes relationship among tables.
Superkey
Candidate Keys
Primary Key
Alternate Keys
Foreign Key
Composite Key

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SuperKey
 Superkey
– An attribute, or set of attributes, that uniquely
identifies a tuple within a relation.

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 Table: Employee

Emp_SSN Emp_Number Emp_Name

11 116 Anshika
12 117 Devanshi
15 118 Aditya
16 119 Arun

All of the following sets of super key are able to uniquely identify a row of
the employee table.
•{Emp_SSN}
•{Emp_Number}
•{Emp_SSN, Emp_Number}
•{Emp_SSN, Emp_Name}
•{Emp_SSN, Emp_Number, Emp_Name}
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•{Emp_Number, Emp_Name}
Candidate Key

 Candidate Key
– Superkey (K) such that no proper subset is a superkey
within the relation.
– In each tuple of R, values of K uniquely identify that
tuple (uniqueness).
– No proper subset of K has the uniqueness property
(irreducibility).

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Table: Employee

Emp_SSN Emp_Number Emp_Name

11 116 Anshika
12 117 Devanshi
15 118 Aditya
16 119 Arun

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Primary Key

Primary Key
– Candidate key selected to identify tuples uniquely within
relation.

We denote it by underlining the attribute name (column name).

The value of primary key should be unique for each row of the
table. The column(s) that makes the key cannot contain duplicate
values.

The attribute(s) that is marked as primary key is not allowed to

have null values.

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Table : STUDENT
Stu_Id Stu_Name Stud_Age

11 Deepak 20
12 Kavya 19
15 Mohit 22
16 Aman 23

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Alternate Keys

Alternate Keys
– Candidate keys that are not selected to be primary
key.

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 Table: Employee
Emp_Id Emp_Number Emp_Name

11 116 Namita
12 117 Anju
15 118 Vaibhav
16 119 Prakhar

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Foreign Key

Foreign Key
– Attribute, or set of attributes, within one relation that
matches candidate key of some (possibly same) relation.

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Table :Course_enrolment Table: Student

 Course_Id Stu_Id   Stu_Id Stu_Name Stu_Age

BCS-13 101
101 Rupal 22
BCS-14 102
102 Shreya 26
BCS-15 101
BCS-16 102 103 Harshit 25
BCS-17 103 104 Shivam 21
BCS-18 102

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Composite key
Any key such as super key, primary key, candidate key etc. can be called
composite key if it has more than one attributes.

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Table :Sales

Cust_Id Order_Id Product_code Product_count

C01 0001 P007 20
C02 0002 P007 21
C02 0002 P130 92
C01 0001 P290 33

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Integrity Constraints
 Null
– Represents value for an attribute that is
currently unknown or not applicable for tuple.
– Deals with incomplete or exceptional data.
– Represents the absence of a value and is not the
same as zero or spaces, which are values.

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Integrity Constraints
 Entity Integrity
– In a base relation, no attribute of a primary
key can be null.

 Referential Integrity
– If foreign key exists in a relation, either
foreign key value must match a candidate
key value of some tuple in its home relation
or foreign key value must be wholly null.

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Integrity Constraints
 General Constraints
– Additional rules specified by users or
database administrators that define or
constrain some aspect of the enterprise.

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